1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved data processing system and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for multicomputer data transferring. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for multicomputer communication using assorted protocols.
2. Description of Related Art
E-commerce web sites and web applications perform transactions over computer networks on behalf of users. In an e-commerce web-based environment, computer systems often have authentication services as a form of electronic sentry gate while accessing a web site. A user must often pass through an authentication procedure to prove the user's identity to an appropriate level of certainty before obtaining access to most server-side resources. These authentication services may be implemented as a web server plug-in, a reverse proxy, or some other type of server-side component. To perform an authentication procedure, a protocol engine in a server-side component communicates directly with a client application using a protocol that is supported by the client application, such as HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP), thereby often requiring client-focus, i.e. some type of control of the processing flow for the authentication process from the client-side perspective, which may often include user interaction through the client application.
However, in order to enhance security or in order to address other types of concerns, some server-side components may be restricted from executing or implementing certain protocols, particularly advanced protocols that are used by authentication services for user authentication and attribute exchange that require communication with web browsers or similar types of client applications.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and a system for enabling server-side components to access implementation of certain communication protocols within other server-side components that have the ability to achieve interaction with users through web browsers and similar types of client applications.